Hyouka: The continuing story
by The dudeoffanfiction
Summary: When Hotaru has a freak accident at a science demonstartion, his life will change in ways he never dreamed possible. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

_My second story on . Hope you enjoy, and here are a few disclaimer notes about this story:  
The story takes place soon after the last episode of the Anime, I have not read the fifth volume of the light novels, so I am not taking its story into account._

_The story may seem silly at first, but I think some of you may be pleasantly surprised._

_And, please review if you do get to reading the entire chapter._

**Chapter 1**

I sat down, curled up into a ball in the corner of the abandoned shed next to the school. The pain had grown to an increasing intensity that I had not felt before. The pain burned even more when I touched my bitten hand. At the demonstration which I had reluctantly decided to go to with Chitanda, a scientist had been demonstrating some sort of radiation device that he was going to suggest to the Japanese aerospace industries that they use it to enhance different devices_._ It bored me to death, so I hadn't been paying any attention to my surroundings, only occasionally peeking over at Chitanda. Ever since the doll festival, I had been thinking more about her than I ever had before. Maybe it had been my imagination, which had shown me telling her I could be her "business side" as she had referred to it. If anything, that's where my mind was at the time.

Up from the ceiling, an oddly colored spider crawled down its thin web. Apparently, it had been able to crawl on my hand while I was lost in whatever thought I was considering at the moment. Then, a sharp pain crawled up my neural passageways, and came into my brain. The pain was intense at first, but seemed to subside after a few seconds. However, I couldn't help letting out a groan of pain at the biting. I looked for the spider, but it had apparently fallen off my hand.

Chitanda looked at me, concern showing in her violet eyes. "Are you alright, Oreki-san?" She had inquired.  
"I'm fine," I said, desperately trying to shrug her off. "I think I may have gotten too close to the radiation display." Chitanda didn't seem convinced by my hasty response, but merely nodded, and turned her head back towards the demonstration. My response must have been answer enough, her curiosity level was probably being divided at that point between two points; my yelp of pain, and the science demonstration. She was more interested in the demonstration.

Figures.

After a minute or two, however, the pain came back at such a large intensity, that I vigorously ran out the door, hoping and praying that the pain would stop if I just stepped outside. I found a spot next to the shed where I felt I would be able to examine myself in private, and examined the wound more closely. It had seemed to have grown, looking almost like it had swollen. I scratched at the wound, but this only made matters worse.

I stretched my body out, bringing myself out of remembering the events that led to what I was feeling at that point; pain. A pain I could not seem to get rid of no matter what I did. I rubbed it against the wood on the shed, hoping that for some reason the contrast in surfaces would somehow lessen the pain.

I had not done my research.

I got a splinter.

"_Damn," _I thought.

I would have walked over to the school nurse, or even back to Chitanda to see if she knew anything about this, but all I could focus on was the pain in my hand. The unquenchable pain that was the worst pain I had ever felt. If ever thinking about such a thing in the sense of what I would do if it happened, or if Satoshi had asked me such a question, I would have said I'd simply use the energy that I conserved to find someone to help me as fast as I could.

But I didn't feel like that then, I felt like I could just fall over and die it hurts so much.

Just then, an extremely odd sensation filled my whole body. It was like I could feel something foreign crawling through all my veins. As if, something from the inside was changing me.

"_What the hell is happening to me?" _I asked myself. Just then, I heard rapid footsteps coming towards me. Chitanda must have seen me, and tried to find out what was going on. Under some circumstances, I would have been glad to see her. But now, I felt like dying, or at the very least slipping unconscious.

Which was exactly what I did.

The last thing I thought before my eyes closed was,

Blank.

_Earlier that morning:_

I groggily woke up to address my alarm clock. No matter how many times I wanted to smash that thing whenever it woke me up from my well needed sleep, Tomoe would give me that look. The look of, "Are you disagreeing with me? I certainly hope not."

It was something Satoshi would commonly joke about.

I could never say no to my sister.

So, I merely shut off the alarm, and dressed into my school uniform. I was half dressed when I heard my sister knocking outside the door. "You better hurry, Hotaru, you don't want to be late for your first day off from summer break."  
"I'd love to stay home. School would be a waste of time if I didn't have to do it."  
"What if Chitanda had told you to go to school in that case?"  
"Then that would be something I would have to do."  
After I finished getting into my school uniform, I walked down the stairs, and sat down at the table. A plate of waffles was neatly set on one of the dinner plates with maple syrup covering them in the same way they would on those TV commercials. I slowly ate the breakfast my sister had prepared for me, and noticed her sit down on the opposite side of me, eating her food much faster than I was.

"Slow down, you should try and sample your food."  
"Since when did you care about food's taste, Hotaru?"  
"I don't, trying to appeal to you in language you would understand."  
"I see," She took a large bite of the waffles she had served herself. I pushed the other waffle towards her, and stood up. "Glad you're taking my advice, Hotaru."  
"I don't have a choice, really."  
"Exactly." I turned the door knob, and just before I left, she quickly said to me, "One more thing,"

"if you're late for school, you're responsible for afternoon chores."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

While I didn't exactly, run, to school, that would have been a waste of energy in the short term; I walked a bit faster than I normally did on the path. For me, it was a huge strain of energy. I definitely did not _have_ to do this, but I was able to concur that if I didn't, I would be spending more energy cleaning in the afternoon after school.

When I reached Kamiyama High School, my simple routine started. I attended my classes, contently sat during each one, and walked to the Classics Club room as usual. Satoshi, as usual, talked to me in between each period, as well as lunch hour. Noticing I had not seemed to have been as talkative, he questioned me on which I blatantly stated I was worried my sister would make me do chores at home, which made him burst into laughter.

"Something only you'd worry much about, Hotaru."

After this, our conversations had been mostly the same. We dabbled in our agreement regarding conserving bodily energy, and talked about how _hard _classes had gotten since the spring semester had come back from the recent holiday. New was certainly not the word to refer to the conversations I had had with Satoshi.

I opened the door, and I was alone. Typical. I sat down on one of the chairs around the Classics Club's table, taking a book out of my full backpack as I did so. I didn't often read manga, but when I had free time, I thought it to be a perfect pastime. There were pictures so you didn't have to make visual images of what was going on, and it didn't really cost any energy.

After reading a page or two, I closed the manga. I figured I'd read it when I got back home. I stared out the window, the sun set beautifully setting upon a feel very similar to paintings I had seen before. I tapped my fingers on the table for a few moments, before hearing rapid footsteps coming near the door.

Sliding open, my eyes met the exhausted face of Chitanda Eru. She looked as if she had been running laps around the outside track before coming here. She saw my face, and let out a small smile. Noticing the sweat trickling down my fore head almost implanted the thought of me doing such arduous exercise into my head. I quickly flushed the thought down an imaginary drain.

"Hello, Oreki-san." She let out before sliding into the chair directly across from me.

"Hello, why are you sweating?"  
"Oh, I ran to class. The period after lunch took longer than I was expecting, so I thought I was late."  
"Not really, Satoshi and Ibara-san aren't even here yet."  
"Oh," She said, putting her hands on her lap. "So, Oreki,"  
"Hm?" I questioned.

"One of my classes is having the students write a paper on whether using tons of radiation to enhance objects is a smart idea or not, so, the Professor suggested that we go to the demonstration their having in the gym in a half hour."  
"So?" I almost knew what was coming, but didn't want to admit it.

"If you're not busy, would you like to come with me?"  
"Why?"  
"Uh," She stuttered, looking down at the ground. I noticed her cheeks flush red for a second. Remembering the events of the Doll Festival, this shouldn't have surprised me. But I noticed my cheeks starting to change colors as her had. "Because, I thought it would be easier to do the work if I had someone with me to help me understand the concepts."  
"When have you ever needed help with work? From what I can tell, you're a straight 'A', student. Besides, why don't you ask Satoshi or Ibara?"  
"They have after school clubs to take care of already. And…."  
"And?"  
"Oh, um, nothing," I very rarely saw Chitanda look this flustered. Did my appearance really make her exuberance take a back seat to shyness, and awkwardness? I honestly hoped not. Otherwise, I knew it would be a very long semester.

"Um, okay. I don't have anything better to do," _"And my sister may want me to do extra chores this afternoon." _I added in my head.

"Oh, thanks Oreki." She smiled. I nodded, and looked towards the door. Even though they had other responsibilities, I had expected Satoshi and Ibara to be here before me. But they weren't. I was perplexed by this, but certainly did not want to spark Chitanda's curiosity now of all times. Remembering the Kan'ya festival, her curiosity had kept her off-track from her mission at hand. For her sake, I didn't want that to happen today.

As if to keep this from happening for sure, Ibara Mayaka entered the room. She took two looks at both sides of the room before sitting on a chair and asking, "Have either of you seen Fuku-chan?"

"_Damn,"_

"No," Chitanda shrugged, looking down, seemingly considering why he hadn't arrived yet.

"Oreki?"  
"No, why do you want to see him so suddenly?"  
"I don't, but….. He hasn't actually been seen around the school since lunch." I turned my head up towards hers, studying her expression. She seemed honestly worried.

"I saw him at lunch; he said he was heading to his next period early so that he could study extra for his exam."  
"Did you see him in class?" I pulled my bang down, trying to remember if Satoshi had actually been there. Then, I remembered a conversation the teacher had relayed to us.

"_As some of you may have noticed, Fukube Satoshi is not in class. This is because he says he prefers to take class exams alone. He is currently in the….. Room across the hall to the right, taking the exam in front of our substitute."_

After explaining what the teacher had said, Ibara rolled her eyes annoyingly stating, "Didn't you even consider this may have been even a little bit odd?"  
"I... Wasn't paying attention to him at the time."  
"Don't you usually talk to him at the end of class? Or walk to the Classics Club with him?"  
"I was too lost in thought to think about that." I said, a little harsher then I should have. Chitanda even seemed surprised.

"Oh, sorry Oreki, I'm just worried about what might have happened to him. What were you thinking about?"  
"My sister. She was considering have me do afternoon chores if I was late for school."  
"Oh brother!" She yelled, flinging her face down on the table. Chitanda turned towards me. As she did this, I noticed her eyes start to grow, and change color. I knew what this meant, and started to prepare myself for it.

"Oreki, what happened to Satoshi?" She said as she started to lean towards me.

"I, I don't know. But, you'll be late for your…..

"I can't stop thinking about it!" Her curiosity had been let out. There was no way I was going to get her to pay attention to a different task. Since I thought Satoshi probably just had to run home early for some reason, I didn't think the matter was worth looking into. But, now I saw I had no choice.

Her face had gotten eerily close to me. Well, not eerily, I suppose, but close enough, especially considering my near confession at the Doll Festival, to make me feel uncomfortable. I shifted my head backwards, and nodded.  
"Okay, I think we have time to figure this out." I said disappointment apparent in my voice. Chitanda smiled, and Ibara merely nodded, her face set into a serious expression, but I could still tell she was worried.

"Alright then, let's go." She ran out the door, Chitanda following her out the door. After a few steps, Chitanda stopped, and ran back towards me. I was going after the fat chance that they would go after the mystery without me, not notice I had stayed in my chair.

Fat chance indeed.

She grabbed my hand, and pulled me out the door with her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

We spent about five minutes asking various students who had been in the classroom with me if they had seen Satoshi after class. Sadly, the closest thing we got to yes was one student who spent an entire minute considering if he had. When we walked back to the door of the Classics Club, Ibara let out a moan, and said, "Oh, where could have Fuku-chan gone?"  
"I understand, Mayaka. I do wonder how we can find out where he has gone off to."  
"Well, technically we could ask the substitute teacher." I said hesitation apparent in my voice. Ibara turned towards me, her eyes half closed in frustration, and asked, "Why didn't you point that out in the first place?"  
"Because, she may not know. Besides, Satoshi has other friends at school, I thought maybe he told one of them where he was headed."  
"I guess I can see you're point."

"Who is this teacher's name?" Chitanda inquired.  
"Sakaywaga-sensei."

"I see,"  
"Well, let's go!" Ibara yelled, dragging me along with Chitanda by her side. After she let go of me, I showed them to where the room was my teacher had pointed out. When we finally did reach the room, we sat down at three chairs that were lined up next to the desk, and turned to face the teacher. She was a pleasant looking woman with black hair that had patches of gray which covered some strands. Her face was wrinkled, glasses rather low on her small nose. Her eyes were an odd hazel color I was not familiar with.

"Welcome," She said, putting a smile on her face. "Is there something I can do for you?"  
"Sensei," Chitanda-san began. "We want to know if you knew where Fukube Satoshi went after he finished his exam here."

"Ah," She said, adjusting her glasses to hide her astonishment at the force of Chitanda's question. "Yes. Satoshi was here a while ago. But, you must be Chitanda Eru? From that powerful farming family?" Chitanda nodded, affirming her assumption. She turned towards Ibara and I. "And, Hotaru Oreki, Ibara Mayaka? I see you've become interested in your friend's location as well?" I thought about arguing, but merely decided to nod at her question. She turned her head towards the open window, letting out a sigh. "Honestly, I don't know where he went."  
"But senpai," Ibara said, her voice rising as she did, "Fuku-ch….. Fukube-san's been missing since he took your exam. I need to know where he went off to!" She very rarely got this upset about anything. However, I learned that when it dealt with Satoshi, she would tend to get very enthusiastic about the issue. The teacher turned towards her, and said,  
"Satoshi had come in here to take his exam. He explained he didn't like taking his exam in front of his other classmates. After he had done about have his exam, he told me,"

"_I feel bored today, sensei."  
"Because of the exam?"  
"No, this whole day. Nothing interesting has happened."  
"Well, I can think of one thing interesting happening now."  
"What would that be?"  
"Well, you being upset about nothing interesting anyways."  
"Ha ha, good one, senpai. It's not that I'm sad, but_ _something always seems to be going on by this hour. But today, I haven't found anything even remotely curious."  
"I see, maybe when you go to your extracurricular class, something interesting might happen."  
"Possibly,"_

"After saying this," She continued, after relaying the exact quotations to them. "He turned the exam to me, and started to walk out the door. But before he did this, he said,"

"_You're probably right, sensei. Something interesting will probably happen then. But, I think I have something planned in mind."  
_"He then shut the door, and that's the last I saw of him."  
"I see," I muttered, considering what he may have been planning to do. "Thank you for your time, senapi."  
"It was no problem, really." We walked out the door, and started to take the long walk back to the club room.

"Oh, that was an interesting story, but I can't think of anything interesting Fuku-chan could have done! Why can't I be better at critical thinking?"  
"I could think of a lot of things," Chitanda commented. "But, he would have told us at the club room, wouldn't he of?" She turned towards me, but I didn't respond immediately. Having seen the events swirl around in my head, I started to piece the puzzle together. All of a sudden, my eyes opened and I said,

"Because he didn't want to be seen." Ibara and Chitanda stared at me, both looking confused.  
"What do you mean, Oreki?" Ibara questioned.  
"The interesting thing he said he was going to do. Not go to the class room."  
"But, hasn't he done that before?" Chitanda said.

"Yes, but not before checking out of the school, and going home. Satoshi hasn't checked out yet. He's probably hiding somewhere where he can't look suspicious."  
"So, you're saying he was fooling us?"  
"Yes, something he never does under normal circumstances. It was something so obvious, he probably smacked his head that he didn't think of it in the first place."  
"So, where is he now?" Chitanda asked.  
"He could be in quite a few places," I said. "But if I had to guess, he's probably come back to the club room." At that moment, I opened the door, and my eyes met Satoshi, sitting on the table his legs spread across it.

"I wondered when you guys would figure out where I was."  
"Fuku-chan!" Ibara yelled, running up to him, her eyes filled with anger. "Don't do that! You scared us half to death!"  
"Why didn't you just assume I had gone home?" He asked.  
"I did," I said, with annoyance in my voice. "But they didn't accept my simple explanation."  
"That figures." He said, getting off of his chair.

"You could have asked us for something interesting to do." Ibara muttered.  
"What would be the fun in that?" He said, raising his right eyebrow while letting out a hearty laugh. "Besides, do you really worry about me through the whole school day?" He then kissed Ibara on the cheek. While I had heard they seemed to be an official "couple" from Ibara, I never thought of what it might look like to see either of them actually do it. She took a few steps back, blushing as she did, and smacked him across the cheek in a playful manner.

"Not in front of other people, Fuku-chan! It's too embarrassing!"

"What can I say; you're cute when you're embarrassed." She then started to chase after him, Chitanda chuckling as they did. Just then, I turned towards the clock across the hall, and realized it was only two minutes until her demonstration she had to go to.

"Chitanda, the demonstration is starting in a few minutes!" Gasping, she grabbed my arm, and ran out the door, saying,  
"Sorry I have to leave on such short notice, but I have a demonstration to get to!" About a second later, I heard Satoshi and Ibara have one more brief exchange.

"Now that no one's around, am I allowed to kiss you?" Satoshi teased.

_SMACK!_ Was the last thing I heard before Chitanda rushed me down the stairs.

_Update: re-posted the chapter because I accedentially wrote "senpai" instead of "sensai"._


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

That brought me up to date.

I forced my eyes opened and looked up to the faces of Chitanda, Satoshi, and Ibara. The school nurse was working off to the side, studying some blood samples she had taken from me.

"Uh," I groaned.

"Oreki," Chitanda sighed. "I was worried you weren't going to be okay. What happened?"

"Well," I said, suddenly uncomfortable to her face being so close to be me. "That spider must have been more dangerous than I thought." I shrugged.  
"Apparently," Ibara said, raising her right eyebrow.

"Nurse," I asked. "Am I gonna die?"  
She laughed at my sarcasm, and walked up to me.  
"Luckily, the spider's bite doesn't seem to have been poisonous. You must have just suffered a dizzy spell. Have you ever been bitten by a spider before."  
"No," I said, still trying to figure out exactly why I reacted so strongly to the spider's bite.

"I see, then it's probably just you're body getting used to such a bite. We'll know for sure after we take a look at the blood samples we took from you. Since you've taken blood tests of you before, we'll compare it to your blood from before the bite, just to see if for some reason there has been any change. For the time being, we'll let you go. Your sister will be here to pick you up in a few minutes." She then exited the room.

"Well," Satoshi smirked. "Guess all that saved up energy didn't help much today, eh Hotaru?"  
"Idiot,"

"Just saying. I wasn't worried about you though. I figured, no matter how strong the spider's bite was, you could handle it. That is, if you're motto was correct."  
I found it hard to bare Satoshi's constant chatter. Luckily, I found a divergence point.  
"Did you go back to the demonstration, Chitanda?"  
"No," She said. "They stopped the demonstration when they heard an 'strange-looking spider', as the substitute teacher put it, got into the gym."  
"I see, so you didn't miss anything."  
"My teacher's having us do a report on what we did find out at the demonstration."  
"I see," I muttered. I started to feel strengthened, even after the bite. In fact, I felt like my whole body had just been rejuvenated with one of those energy drinks.

"_What the hell did they put into me?" _

"So, Hotaru." Satoshi said, leaning his legs on the bare side on one of the medicine tables. "Do you think your sister will let you come back to school tomorrow?"

"Definitley,"  
"Ha ha, I guess your sister doesn't care about your well-being."  
"Well, she probably does somewhere in her cold heart. But when she picks me up, she'll definitely tell me to shrug it off."  
"I can see that." He remarked.

The instant rush to get out of my bed was starting to make me dizzy. After a few seconds of silence, I jumped out of the bed as excited as a blind man would be if he just regained his sight, and bounced out the window.

Somehow, I didn't notice Chitanda grab onto my right arm in a desperate attempt to keep me in my room.

The ground started coming closer and closer. When I regained my senses, I shifted Chitanda into my arms, and perfect landing feet first on the ground. I couldn't believe. I barely felt the impact of the ground.

I gazed up at my hospital window which Satoshi and Ibara were staring out of now. I had jumped at least four stories down.

"HOTARU!" Satoshi yelled. "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!"

I didn't feel like yelling. I was concentrating on Chitanda, who was now in my arms. I immediately started blushing, and gently lay her down on the ground. She stood up, staring at me with amazed curious eyes.

"How did you do that, Oreki-san?" I tried to come up with an answer to her question, but couldn't. I thought back to my injection theory, and said,

"It's possible they injected coffee into my blood, so that's where the short term energy came from." I heard Satoshi laughing up at the window, while Ibara was still looking down at me.

"Don't be silly!"  
"I was just guessing."  
"What if it has something to do with the spider that bit you?" Chitanda asked.

"But, how could that…?" I noticed the impending need to move was dawning upon me again. Suddenly, I turned back up to the hospital, and jumped right above the fourth story window I had previously jumped from. Without even thinking, I crawled up the side of the wall, and jumped onto the roof. I gazed into the sunset, not even thinking about my current condition.

Suddenly, I realized how high up I was, and turned back down to see the shocked faces of Satoshi, Ibara, and Chitanda. I heard the nurse, scared out of her wits, running up the stairs that led to the rooftop.

After a few minutes of silence, Satoshi barely got out,

"Well," He said, the expression on his face unchanged. "I guess you have bug instincts now."  
It was intended as a joke, but the fact that I could suddenly jump very far, withstand falls from four stories high, and climb up the side of walls did make some of his joke seem very convincing.

I felt the nurse grab onto my arm, asking,

"How did you just do what you did?!"

I stared out into space, trying to figure out exactly what had happened to me. I was starting to hope all of this was a dream. After about a minute of thinking, I responded,

"I don't know,"  
"I just, don't know."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The nurse ended up bringing me back to my bed until my sister came back. I was initially very reluctant. My body still felt like being freed into the large open world that I felt I had not explored enough of yet. This feeling led to me trying to jump out of bed.

Which led to me being giving at least seven different sedatives before I finally gave into resting.

I was not amused.

I leaned back against my bed, the searing pain of the sedatives flowing through my body. Satoshi and Ibara had decided to leave, not being able to take the pain I had seemed to be in. Chitanda, however, was curious as to how the sedatives worked, and had been inquiring about each one all while I yelled.

I saw her come back through the door, and sit on a stool next to my bed. Although I had been embarrassed to be close to her at all the entire day, I was content to have someone to talk to until my sister came back. Her face was overshadowed by her bangs, her face looking pained. I tried to shrug off the pain. "It's nothing, only temporary pain."

"But what about your everyday life? What if you won't be able to concentrate on anything?"  
"There are worse things in life."  
"But it goes against your motto!" She yelled.

I was shocked by her forcefulness. If anything, I thought she would be glad that because of a simple spider bite, I would forever be using my energy, just like she did every day. But, she was, upset by this occurrence. For once in my life, I felt completely clueless. She retracted back to her previous position after letting her words hang in the air for a few seconds, and continued. "I mean, it would go against who you are as a person. It just wouldn't be the same seeing this you around school."  
"Don't worry. If I feel like it, they'll probably let me use sedatives to keep me down."  
"But I couldn't bear to see you on sedatives all day!"  
"Quiet down, please. I don't want to break free of my sedatives.

"Oh, sorry," She said, looking sad that she had disappointed me.

"Don't be, I shouldn't spend time pondering on why life moves the way it does."  
"That sounds like you, Oreki-san."  
I blushed at the compliment, but quickly brushed off the praise. If anything, I did not want to become a school sensation at that moment. I wanted to be like I was for the rest of high school. Just then, I came up with a theory,

"Maybe, my body's getting used to the changes in my body, so it feels like it needs to shrug it off with exercise in order to get it in my system. Which would mean tomorrow, or the day after, I won't have the same rush."  
"That could be,"  
"'Something wrong with that theory?"  
"I don't know yet, I'll have to think about it. But for your sake, I really hope you're right."

"Me to,"

Just then, a nurse walked into the room.

"Your sister is outside the door waiting for you. She was rather calm when she heard the news."

_Not surprising._

"Well, that's good," I said, not wanting to let out my true sarcastic comment come out.

"You can go out to meet her." I stood up from my bed, and took my clothes from the nurse. Before I walked off, Chitanda grabbed my arm, and stared at me.

"Could you promise me something, Oreki?"  
I tried to figure out what she was going to say, but I couldn't.

"Yeah, what?"  
"Promise me, no matter what, you'll always be yourself that you'll never want to be someone different from yourself." My eyes widened at this request. I had never really wished that I was different, only briefly considering it in order to please the ones around me. But Chitanda at this moment seemed deadly serious, without a hint of hesitation or embarrassment. Just putting what she had been thinking into words. I considered her offer, and then did something that surprised even me.

I grabbed both of her hands, putting them up towards her face. I stared into her eyes like she had been, in the same way with eyes that seemed to peer into someone's very soul. Her cheek started to change color, but she did not waver.

"I promise," I said, knowing that this was one promise I was going to make sure I kept. Even if I should have left at that moment, I felt no immediate desire to leave this moment.

The nurse tapping my shoulder brought me back to reality.

"Are you ready to go now?" She asked.

I let go of her hands, blushing as I did, and walked out the door. Before I walked up to my sister on the opposite side of the hallway, I turned around, and waved to Chitanda. Hesitating for only a second, she waved back as I closed the door behind me.

Tomoe Oreki did not look concerned for my health at all. In fact, she seemed completely calm as we walked into the car, and drove back to our house.

But then, something happened that I wasn't expecting.

"What the hell happened to you, Hotaru?" She asked in a fierce tone.

"Some sort of spider bit me, and somehow I got similar abilities to a spider as well."  
"How do you explain the jumping out of buildings part?! You could have gotten yourself killed!"  
"I don't know. It's almost as if whenever I'm not on sedatives, I have a spider's instincts. And when did you ever care about my health?!"

"Just because I hold it most of the time under sarcasm, doesn't mean I don't love you Hotaru." She then took a deep breath, and re-focused her attention on driving. "So," She said, regaining her composure rather quickly. "How was your friend Chitanda?"  
"Fine, curious as usual."  
"That's not surprising, it's not every day her boyfriend gets the powers of a spider."  
"She's not my girlfriend,"

"Right,"

"We've just been, close, all these years. Like I've been with the rest of the Classics Club."  
"How did I know you were going to say that?"  
"Sisterly instinct, I guess."  
"You're not guessing, you're sure of it."  
"I suppose," We drove into our driveway, and we stepped out of the car. I noticed her walk over to a street lamp, and pointed towards the top of the lamp.

"Now," She grinned. "Let's see some of those spider powers."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

I raised my right eyebrow at my sister. I wasn't exactly sure which power she wanted me to demonstrate.

"Which one?" I asked.

"Spin a web."  
"WHAT?" I yelled. "I can't do that!"  
"I saw it in a comic book once. Kid gets bitten by a spider, can spin webs."  
"But I can't do that!" She sighed, and then came up with a different idea.

"Then why don't you just climb up the pole?" I would have normally declined. It was a waste of energy. However, as usual, when my sister wanted something, she ALWAYS got her way.

I sighed, and walked over to the pole. I put one of my hands on the pole, and then started to slowly lead my hands up it. When I got as far up as I could go, I let my body drift downwards from where I was hanging.

"Interesting," she commented. "Now, stand on top of it." I tried to do what she said, but my feet wouldn't stick to the pole. Realizing this was because I was wearing shoes; I slid them off my feet, and walked up the side of the street lamp, in a completely natural way. I then perched myself on top of the lantern, and gazed towards the sunset.

"That's amazing, Hotaru. Let's just hope you're little energy bursts don't get in the way of your energy saving ways."  
"Oh brother," I said as I jumped back on the ground.

"You mean, 'oh sister',"

I cringed as I walked back to the house. I was about to open the door when my sister asked,

"Where are you going?"  
"To sleep, I'm way too tired to do anything else."  
I strolled up the stairs into my bedroom. I didn't even bother to change out of my school uniform as I plopped onto the bed. Staring up at my bedroom ceiling, I considered how my life would be different if this change turned out to be permanent. However, my fatigue overtook me, and I fell into a deep sleep.

_The next day,_

"_**Ring, Ring,"**_

That damn alarm clock.

"_**Ring, Ring,"**_

I forced my hand down really hard in order to shut it off, but then heard gears smashing, and a brief electrical surge. I turned towards the hand that had shut off the alarm clock, and noticed my attempt at shutting up my alarm clock had been a bit more permanent than I was hoping for.

"_Damn," _I thought. I knew my sis was going to be angry.

Just then, the burst of energy that had overtaken me earlier crawled into my bloodstream yet again. I zoomed down the stairs, not even remembering to brush my teeth, comb my hair, or eat breakfast. I passed my sister who was finishing a phone call.

"Don't worry doctor, I'll tell him." She hung up the phone, and then noticed me. "Hotaru! Where are you going?"  
"School!" I yelled as I ran out the door, just barely remembering to shut it. Then, something amazing happened. My hand moved up towards one of the street lamps as I ran, and fired a fine, thick strand of webbing. It attached itself to the street lamp, and I swung off of it, onto the next street lamp. I regained control of myself long enough to realize what I had just done. I stared to the next lamp, and shrugged. I deduced that this wasn't surprising, seeing the other changes that had happened to my body because of the bite.

I continued jumping from street lamp to street lamp, and after a few minutes, made it to school. It should have taken much longer, but even when I ran full speed, I felt like I could have gone on running for hours.

For once in my school life, I was early. There were very few students at the school; the few that had come were studying school books. I sat myself down on one of the benches, and stared at a girl, drawing a picture in a sketch book. She was a fairly attractive girl, with blue eyes, and glasses that looked priceless. Her cheeks were slender, but had a quality that I could not explain about them that completed her beautiful face. If I had decided to stereotype her, I would have said she was going to be shy.

After a second, however, she turned up towards me, and said,

"Hey, I think I've seen you before." I turned towards her, surprised to see such boldness in her words. I shrugged and said,

"Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. It's very easy to confuse people in a school."  
"No, no, I remember when I saw you in the Classics Club. At the school festival last year, you were the one selling those Hyouka books."  
"Why would you remember me?"  
"I don't know," She said. "Something about you struck me as someone looking for a special friend in their life."  
"That's not really me."  
"Maybe it's just something you haven't discovered for yourself yet." I raised my eyebrow as she continued to sketch. She stopped again, and said, "By the way, my name's Natsuki, Kimiko Natsuki."  
"Oreki Hotaru."  
"It's nice to meet you."  
"Likewise,"  
"Are you in any sports clubs?" She asked.

"No, and I don't really plan to join one."  
"Not much for athletic activity, huh?"  
"I guess not," I looked into her eyes. Something about them reminded me of Chitanda. I wasn't sure how though. I tried to ponder this as we had our conversation.

"So, Oreki-san, what are your favorite pastimes?"  
"I don't really have any,"  
"Well, that's ok."  
"What about you?"  
"Drawing," she said as she turned back to her sketch pad. "I've been studying art since I was eight years old."  
"Is it alright if I look at it?"  
"Sure," I walked over to the pad, and saw the drawing. She seemed to be making some finishing touches before she started coloring. I was blown away by the extravagant picture she had drawn that was supposed to be the White House in America. Her shading techniques had been used to perfection and the details she had used on the surface were detailed, and accurate. She even drew people walking down the roads, some gazing at the majestic building. This wasn't the work of an art student in my mind; this was the work of a professional.

"This is, really, really good." I said, trying to make a compliment without sounding too odd.

"Thanks," she blushed. "Although I think I could do better,"  
"But this is perfect! I don't see a single flaw!"  
"My art teacher would say she saw one," I was taken aback by her slight change of mood. "She's always been very critical of me, only complimenting me on my best works of art. She's always striving for me to become perfect." She sighed. "I just wish I could give her something that would make her jump for joy." I stared back towards the road, where a school bus was starting to drive in. When I thought of something to say, I said,

"Don't mistake what your teacher says negatively about your art work for disliking of you. She sees the sheer power, and wonder of your drawings, and she wants to see you do wonders in the art industry." It was a terrible attempt in encouraging, in fact, I was about as dry as I always was. However, she let out a small smile, and said,

"Thanks for trying." I turned towards the school bus, and noticed Satoshi and Chitanda walking out of the school bus. Looking towards the clock on the school building, I said,

"I have to go, but it was nice talking to you, Natsuki-san."  
"You to," I heard her say as I walked towards the school building.

"Hotaru-kun."


End file.
